Independence Day.
On the Fourth of July, we celebrate the birth of America.
There will be parades and fireworks, barbecues, picnics, carnivals, fairs, baseball games, speeches and ceremonies, etc.
We will talk about our history and tradition.
We will speak of freedom and liberty.
We will remember our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, and the grand ideas it shows us. The most familiar words that still guide and inform us.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Yet, when we think about this historical document, sometimes I think we overlook the driving force behind it and the sacrifices made to give birth to our independence.
I'm talking about the 56 men that signed the Declaration of Independence and quite literally signed their lives away.
The following is taken from the closing of the last paragraph from the Declaration:
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
Our lives. Our fortunes. Our sacred honor.
We understand the first two but it's very hard to grasp the concept of sacred honor in today's society. We hardly commit to anything and stick with it.
To put it simply in Texas Holdem Poker terms, these men we're "all in."
They held nothing back.
And their losses were many.
They lost houses and lands, children and families, their health, their fortunes, their liberty, their reputations, their friendships, etc. For many it cost them everything, even their lives.
Every year at this time, as we celebrate, I've tried to make it a tradition to read the Declaration to my children. I hope they will read it to their children someday.
We read the names of the 56 signers aloud and say "thank you."
I think we owe them that much.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
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